Philosophy of Life

Hisashi Fujita, "Désir et joie : deux philosophies politiques de la vie. Deleuze ou Bergson II", in Shin Abiko, Hisashi Fujita, Masato Goda (éds.), Tout ouvert : l'évolution créatrice en tous sens, Georg Olms Verlag : Hildesheim - Zürich - New York, coll. "Europaea Memoria" Band 114, 2015, pp. 225-247.

The concept of antinatalism is now becoming popular on the Internet. Many online newspaper articles deal with this topic, and numerous academic papers on antinatalism have been published over the past ten years in the fields of philosophy and ethics.  The word “antinatalism” was first used in the current meaning in 2006, when the two books that justify the universal negation of procreation were published: one by David Benatar and the other by Théophile de Giraud. However, we can find various prototypes of antinatalistic thoughts in ancient Greece, ancient India, and modern Europe. You might recall the name Schopenhauer.
In this paper, I briefly summarize the history of antinatalistic thoughts and propose a set of categories on antinatalism and related thoughts.

Luego del políptico de La comunidad de los espectros, un nuevo comienzo se torna necesario. Un giro en el filosofar atento al espesor metafísico de la subversión epocal en curso en todo el orbe. Esa misma crisis revela ahora como insuficientes los métodos más osados de las Humanidades del siglo XX. Un punto de partida: el relato acerca de un supuesto proceso judicial por vampirismo acaecido en un remoto cantón de Hungría a principios del siglo XVIII.
Con el discurrir de las hipótesis aquí propuestas, las relaciones con la licantropía se volverán centrales y ambos fenómenos deberán ser objeto de una minuciosa ultra-historia que acompaña al lector hasta los tiempos paleolíticos del culto de la Gran Madre. Pero esto es sólo el comienzo de un viaje metafísico que, bajo las formas de la sangre, el sacrificio y la metamorfosis, nos conduce hasta el origen mismo de la vida-muerte sobre la Tierra como estación necesaria para una meditación sobre el futuro cosmológico de los seres hablantes. El Vampiro y el Hombre lobo son las figuras filosófico-conceptuales que, una vez desentrañadas, nos muestran la vía regia hacia una forma completamente nueva de rehabilitación del pensamiento especulativo bajo la forma de una “ontología analéptica”.
Desde los inmemoriales rituales del sacrificio antiguo, hasta la teología política inversa del vampirismo, pasando por una inédita filosofía de los virus, se delinea ante nuestros ojos el subsuelo a partir del cual se revelan las condiciones de posibilidad de todo pensamiento acerca del Ser y la actual obsolescencia de todas las formas en las que este último ha sido previamente mentado. De este modo, un tenebroso y enjundioso proceso judicial, hoy caído en el olvido, nos muestra que custodiaba, sin saberlo, los secretos supremos de todo lo existente que la inveterada tradición ha dignificado con el nombre de Cosmos. Se anuncia, así, el comienzo de la Segunda Era Metafísica.
Publicado por Miño y Dávila Editores, Buenos Aires / Barcelona, 2022.
www.minoydavila.com [envíos a todo el mundo]

Recenzowana monografia nie jest sensu stricto systematycznym wywodem na temat zakresu i kategorii filozofii życia. Autorowi zależy raczej na ustanowieniu żywego dialogu, w którym życie — by posłużyć się Heideggerowską metaforą — będzie zagadywane o swą istotę, dynamikę, peryferie, jak i o własną negatywność. Spodziewajmy się zatem konfrontacji poglądów i negocjacji znaczeń, popartych rzetelną próbą rekonstrukcji myśli filozofów i ich wzajemnej krytyki. Trzej tytułowi myśliciele reprezentują trzy pokolenia pewnej tradycji myślenia o życiu. Każdy kolejno rozprawia się z trudnym dziedzictwem fundamentalnych pytań, a kontynuacja ma charakter w znacznej mierze polemiczny.

This article analyzes methodological difficulties with defining life. Particular emphasis will be placed on exploring beliefs that (allegedly) provide arguments for skeptics who claim that life escapes definition (with the current stage of scientific knowledge or in general). After a thorough analysis, these arguments in fact proved to be methodological myths. They might be justified to some extent, but their importance is definitely overestimated. There is the myth of essentialism, the myth of ('wrong') conventionalism, the myth of excessive diversification of the definitions of life, the myth of impossibility of operationalization, the myth of unstoppable force of counterexamples, the myth of universalism, and the myth of linguistic pitfalls. Apart from addressing these illusory difficulties, I discuss methodological issues relevant to the definition of life, including: 1) the (potential) conflict between heuristic and explanatory-predictive function of the definition of life, 2) the problem of focus of the definition of life, 3) the (relative) problem of a non-arbitrary selection of the criteria of life, and 4) the question of the historicity of biology in the context of defining life. I also comment on the role of philosophers of biology in developing the definition of life. Keywords: definition of life, skepticism about defining life, methodology of defining life, scientific definition

My theme is ‘life-writing’, understood as the shaping of one's life through the contemplation of values, although this activity is mostly unreflective. To become an art so that one's life can be shaped in greater accord with clearly held values, this process must become reflective. These values have an inescapably ethical dimension, because as we necessarily poetize our surrounding world, we contribute to our personal and communal ethos the character that arises from the culturally shaping power of guiding ideals. Even the immoralist cultivates life within an ethos where obscure feelings connect with some thing or other, whereby certain aims will then appear more valuable than others.

To understand how we cannot help but shape our lives according to dimly or clearly intuited values, I compare Coleridge’s primary imagination, the ‘shaping spirit’ ‘necessary for all human perception’ with Kant’s ‘blind though indispensible function of the soul, without which we would have no cognition at all, yet of which we are scarcely ever conscious’. With Coleridge, we find in imagination an impulse to connect profound but obscure presentiments and ideas with our surroundings. This impulse propels great art and everyday aesthetics alike. Whether we pursue merely what attracts us, or seek value beyond this, all lives are freely shaped, without excuses, as the existentialists say, but not always in the most pellucid consciousness. Our choices inevitably engage us in the poetic art of life-writing. Cast in medias res, we necessarily improvise. But this is no argument against lives being moral-aesthetic works, spontaneous compositions in value.

Sustainability perspectives require non-standard scientific and political reasoning, now more than ever. The lexicons of ecology and political economy articulate epistemic catego- ries and imaginaries in which humans and environments are in mutual relationship avoiding an exploitation logic of the former. We support these scenarios allow to grasp the disconti- nuities between the past and the present of the environmental movements, between the scientific ideals of modernity and the contemporary ones. The need to connect two oppos- ing styles of reasoning is progressing: the theme of the non-neutrality of science and the need for science based political judgments. In this previously unknown combination of science and society, the current democratic practices of "multilevel co-production" between researchers and active citizenship (citizen-science) mark realistic governance pathways of the planetary ecological crisis to which governments seem to have to face, sooner as possi- ble.

Далеку во магичните предели на свеста,една мисла постојано ни создава мир и немир.Љубовта е поим,чувство и елегантно растројство,во состојбата наречена живот.Имено оправданоста на истата,се должи на низа проверки и испитувања,кои воедно се и точни но и анемично неосновани.Тркалезната маса на која се одлучува ,е секогаш преполна со адути.Ние и не можеме да прогледаме поинаку,притоа со силна желба за откривање на вечната енигма.Парадоксот е токму во таа потреба.Некој работи е подобро да се остават и не откриени,се доколку,тие ја облагородуваат и исполнуваат нашата свест и не прават емоционално исполнети.Дефиницијата сама по себе е математичка.Оттука,како би ја дефинирале љубовта,кога нескротливоста на истата,не познава граници,менувајки ја својата форма постојано.Но,бидејќи,се треба да се дефинира,аналитички да се продуцира и заснова,невнимателноста,при ови дефиниции,понекогаш доведуваат и до апсурд,кој и може да биде продуктивен,се дотогаш,додека примарноста не е запоставена.

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch; 1304-1374) composed poetry, most notably the collection known as Canzoniere, and numerous prose works that qualify as philosophy. Based on a select number of poems, this article suggests that Petrarch's poetry is also equivalent to his essays and letters in presenting a philosophy of life. The narrative elements of the poems, namely, the engagement with the audience and the love story, should be read with the metaphorical, symbolic, or allegorical meaning in mind that aims at the anthropological situation of self-assertion and irritation in the light of the transcendent.

In his work “Chekhov’s Art: A Stylistic Analysis” (1942) P. Bitsilli gives us no simple and clear answer to the question about the main idea of Chekhov’s “Gusev”. But P. Bitsilli’s observations on this short story and his research methods as regards to the writer’s prosaic works, particularly his comparative method, means of stylistic analysis and investigation of Chekhov’s prosaic texts as a rhythmic structure, as well as his idea about monas and principium individuationis concerning Chekhov himself and his works – all these together form a reliable basis for us to study “Gusev” as a whole and perfect work of art. The idea of thе short story, as the author of the article argues, is that the Everyman, who is mortal and exists in this world, as a rule does not suspect that he has a vocation to comprehend and understand the eternal, infinite and beautiful cosmos in order to reflect it in works of science, philosophy, art or religion and in this way to overcome death.

"That singular feeling, woven of pleasure and displeasure, stunned my senses – overwhelmed me – cannot possibly resist – I ate the herring! "
(Opinions of Murr the Cat, E.T.A. Hoffmann)
Dedicating a book to Feelings of Being Alive we find ourselves in the position of this existential cat, asking questions of what makes our experience of the world a lively one – or even an experience of life – and what might be the experience of ‘being alive’. It could be that these feelings are something we only experience in passing, as an ability to carry out an ongoing experiential process of registering changes in ones mind, body or the world we engage in. Kant, in his Anthropology, famously characterized the experience of life in such a way as an act of movement/motion of the mind [Bewegungshandlung des Gemüts]: “To feel life, to feel pleasure is nothing else than to constantly feel that one is being driven on to leave one’s current state for another one”. Like pleasure, the feeling of being alive might be a state that cannot rest in itself, that would cease to be if consciousness just remained focussed on one object. In being characterized thus it might not be a state in the narrow sense at all. (...)

This article is concerned with two interrelated questions: what, if anything, distinguishes synthetic from natural organisms, and to what extent, if any, creating the former is of moral significance. These are ontological and ethical questions, respectively. As the title indicates I address both from a broadly neo-Aristotelian perspective, i.e., a teleological philosophy of life and virtue ethics. For brevity's sake I shall not argue for either philosophical position at length, but instead hope to demonstrate their legitimacy through their explanatory power. I firstly argue that synthetic organisms differ in kind from natural organisms and machines, and differ only by degree from genetically modified organisms. I then suggest that this is nevertheless sufficient to give us specific ethical reservations about synthetic biology: namely, that more than any other widely-used biotechnology it is characterised by a drive to mastery that stands opposed to due appreciation of the giftedness of life.

Η άμβλωση συνιστά ένα από τα πιο φλέγοντα ζητήματα στο χώρο της Ηθικής. Παρόλο που νομικά έχει διευθετηθεί σε αρκετές χώρες με τη θεσμοθέτηση του δικαιώματος της γυναίκας στην άμβλωση, το πρόβλημα παραμένει ως προς τον ηθικό σκέλος και είναι ασαφές και αμφιλεγόμενο. 
Στα πλαίσια της εν λόγω εργασίας, πραγματοποιήθηκε ποσοτική ερεύνα. Η μεθοδολογία που ακολουθήθηκε για την επιλογή του δείγματος ήταν η στρωματοποιημένη τυχαία δειγματοληψία και το ερευνητικό εργαλείο που χρησιμοποιήθηκε ήταν το ερωτηματολόγιο.

El texto que aquí presentamos fue publicado originalmente en el año 2015 en la revista francesa ESPRIT. Se trata de un texto de carácter programático, cuyo objetivo es dar cuenta de las posibilidades que se abren al momento de pensar un concepto de resistencia biológica que no sea indiferente al de resistencia política. Desde el título la complicidad entre ambas posee una intención precisa. Separadas por una discreta coma, la cercanía entre ellas nos hace pensar en el lugar para la biología en la resistencia política, así como a través de la biología en ciertas formas políticas de la resistencia. El caso es que la exigencia es, más bien, despertar en la biología aquello que transgrede la normalización e instrumentalización biopolítica.

Ce livre constitue la première étude du rôle de la génération dans les systèmes philosophiques d’Aristote et d’Averroès (1126-1198). En s’appuyant sur de nombreux textes traduits du grec, de l’arabe et du latin, l’auteur propose une nouvelle lecture de la théorie aristotélicienne de la génération, ainsi qu’une interprétation de son renouvellement par le Commentateur. Les traités majeurs consacrés par Averroès à la physique générale, à la théorie des éléments et à la biologie d’Aristote sont, pour la première fois, examinés dans leur rapport mutuel et dans celui qu’ils entretiennent à la métaphysique. Cette étude transversale révèle les nouveaux enjeux philosophiques et épistémologiques au fondement du système d’Averroès : dans la lignée de l’aristotélisme essentialiste d’Alexandre d’Aphrodise et tout en réfutant la doctrine créationniste de certains théologiens de l’Islam, le philosophe cordouan établit le fondement a posteriori de tout savoir humain. La philosophie d’Averroès est ainsi réinterprétée comme un jalon fondamental d’une histoire qui, du monde grec à la modernité, scelle le destin commun de la philosophie naturelle et de la métaphysique.

“Preferite sempre la vita e affermate senza posa la sopravvivenza...”

Il seguente elaborato intende approfondire la questione del Vivente nell’ottica derridiana, al fine di dimostrare come l’emergenza della différance, intesa come condizione di possibilità dell’opposizione tra la Vita e la Morte, assuma i connotati di ciò che indichiamo con il termine “automatismo”.
Si procederà a partire dal confronto derridiano con la psicoanalisi, in particolare con la nozione di “pulsione di morte freudiana”, sviluppata a partire da Al di là del principio di piacere sottolineandone la continuità con la questione dello Spettro e della cosiddetta Hantologia, in particolare attraverso Spettri di Marx, fino ad arrivare al tema dell’animale in L’animale che dunque sono  e negli ultimi seminari La Bestia e il Sovrano  degli anni 2002/2003.
Si sceglie quindi di interagire con la tematica del vivente e della vita, nell’opera di Derrida, estrapolando tre figure: la pulsione di morte, lo Spettro e l’animale.

Per "preferire la vita" è necessario indagare ciò che in una certa misura la eccede e la differisce. Preferire la vita significa accettare la sua non identità, accettare il suo automatismo auto-tanatologico, il suo decostruirsi per riprodursi, accettare la differenza dell’altro, dell’esterno, della scrittura, della tecnica al suo interno, dello spettro che le dà il  tormento senza tregua.

In this paper, I discuss Karen Ng's reconstruction of Hegel's concept of life. On Ng's account, Hegel's conception of life has a remarkable double role to play: Life is both the proper object of judgment as well as a fundamental characterization of the activity of the judging subject. In a first step, I highlight the insight that Ng's account sheds on the internal connection
of life and self-consciousness and the peculiar normativity of life. In a second step, I raise three concerns about Ng's strong focus on the logical notion of life which she characterizes as non-empirical and a priori. I argue that in order to uncover the full significance of the notion of life for Hegel we have to turn to his Philosophy of Nature and Spirit.

Table of Contents and Introduction (pre-publication draft version)

Eric S. Nelson (ed.), Interpreting Dilthey: Critical Essays (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019).

Table of Contents
Introduction: Wilhelm Dilthey in Context Eric S. Nelson
Part I. Life, Hermeneutics, and Science:
1. Dilthey's Conception of Purposiveness: Its Kantian Basis and Hermeneutical Function Rudolf A. Makkreel
2. Leben erfaßt hier Leben: Dilthey as a Philosopher of (the) Life (Sciences) Jos de Mul
3. Dilthey's Importance for Hermeneutics Michael N. Forster
4. Hermeneutics and Historicity: Dilthey's Critique of Historical Reason Charles Bambach
5. Dilthey's Defense of Historicism Frederick C. Beiser
6. More Than One 'Kind' of Science? Implications of Dilthey's Hermeneutics for Science Studies Robert C. Scharff
Part II. Practical Philosophy, Aesthetics, and Interpretation:
7. Dilthey and Empathy Shaun Gallagher
8. Dilthey's Ethical Theory Benjamin Crowe
9. Dilthey's Dream and the Struggle of World-Views Nicolas de Warren
10. A Task Most Pressing: Dilthey's Philosophy of the Novel and His Rewriting of Modern Aesthetics Kristin Gjesdal
11. Experience and Metaphysics: The Anti-Hegelian Aesthetics of Dilthey and Santayana Paul Guyer
12. Dilthey and Wittgenstein: Understanding Understanding Lee Braver
13. Dilthey's Hermeneutics and Philosophical Hermeneutics Jean Grondin

For further Information, please see: http://admin.cambridge.org/academic/subjects/philosophy/nineteenth-century-philosophy/interpreting-dilthey-critical-essays

La influencia de Kurt Goldstein en el pensamiento de Georges Canguilhem se extendió a lo largo de toda su obra. El presente trabajo pretende recuperar esta relación con el objeto de realizar un estudio de la norma como nexo o conexión entre el concepto y la vida. En consecuencia, este trabajo será una reflexión sobre el planteamiento de la vida como actividad normativa y auto-realización. Para ello, será necesario resignificar los conceptos de salud y enfermedad, y atravesar el camino que va de uno a otro. Al final de este camino, se encontrará que estos conceptos permiten explicar la identidad entre el concepto y la vida, lo cual conduce a la conclusión inesperada que la cura es, en definitiva, autocuración.

The influence of Kurt Goldstein on the thinking of Georges Canguilhem extended throughout his entire work. This paper seeks to examine this relationship in order to conduct a study of the norm as a nexus or connection between the concept and life. Consequently, this work will be a reflection on the approach to life as a regulatory activity and self-realization.  For this, it will be necessary to redefine the concepts of health and disease, and make a crossover between the two. At the end of this trajectory, it will be found that these concepts can explain the identity between the concept and life, which leads to the unexpected conclusion that the cure is ultimately self-healing.

Bhagavad-Gita is the most beautiful, perhaps the only true philosophical song existing in any known tongue’ – so opined William von Humboldt.
Though it is a matter of consensus that Bhagvad-Gita in the present length of seven hundred verses has many an interpolation to it, but no meaningful attempt has ever been made to delve into the nature and extent, not to speak of the effect of these on the Hindu society at large.
The moot point that has missed the attention of all, all along, is that if the Sudras were to be so lowly in the Lord’s creation, how come then the Gita’s architect Krishna, His avatar, and Vyāsa, its chronicler, happen to be from the same lowly Hindu caste fold. Moreover, is it not absurd to suggest that either or both of them had deprecated the station of their own varna (caste) on their own in their very own Gita?
The methodical codification of interpolations carried out here, for the first time ever, puts the true character of Gita in proper perspective. Identified here are hundred and ten slokas of deviant nature and or of partisan character, the source of so much misunderstanding about this book extraordinary, in certain sections of the Hindu fold.
Thus, in the long run, exposing and expunging these mischievous insertions is bound to bring in new readers from these quarters to this over two millennia old classic besides altering the misconceptions of the existing adherents.
In this modern rendition, the beauty of the Sanskrit slokas is reflected in the rhythmic flow of the English verses of poetic proportions even as the attendant philosophy of the song that is the Gita is captured in contemporary idiom for easy comprehension.

This Vyas's Sanskrit epic in translation
is Dedicated to my grandparents,
Paternal:  Bulusu Thimmaiah -Lakshmi Narasamma,
Maternal:  Challa Kameswara Rao - Suramma 
And parents: Peraiah Sastry and Kamakshi, 
In whose care my destiny so favourably placed me.

In this article, the master-servant figure in the Phenomenology of
Spirit is analyzed against the background of Hegel’s ontology of
life as an embodied process. It is therefore argued that the theme
of this figure is the question of domination in general,
understood as a social relationship of subjection that can take on
different historical configurations. Domination is understood as a
relationship of disparity of status between dominant and
dominated subjects. Therefore, domination would have an
intersubjective aspect, as constituted by asymmetric relations of
recognition, and a material one, as this disparity in recognitive
status enacts the extraction of physical and symbolic resources
from subordinated subjects.

Hermeneutik als eine Wissenschaft vom Verstehen hat maßgeblich den Charakter der Erkenntnistheorie beeinflusst, die sich heute auf einem neuen kategorialen Fundament entwickelt. Statt am Denken orientiert man sich am Sprechen, statt am Urteilen am Begreifen und statt am Begriff an der Bedeutung.

Diese Transformation arbeitet Maja Soboleva anhand von Texten Georg Mischs und Josef Königs heraus. Sie interpretiert den Ansatz Mischs als eine Lebenshermeneutik. Drei Vektoren – Lebensbegriff als eine logische, eine hermeneutische und eine diskursive Kategorie – lassen ein neues hermeneutisches Paradigma rekonstruieren. Die theoretischen Bemühungen Königs werden als eine Seinshermeneutik dargestellt, in der das Sein zunächst in der Logik der „determinierenden“ und „modifizierenden“ Prädikate fundiert, und die später durch die verschiedenen Epistemologien und Ontologien für die Bereiche der „theoretischen“ und „praktischen“ Sätze ergänzt wird.

This book is a collection of essays on the philosophy of life’s meaning in contemporary society. Topics range from antinatalism, meaning of life, the trolley problem, to painless civilization. I am now writing a comprehensive philosophy book on those topics, but it will take several years to complete; hence, I decided to make a handy book to provide readers with an outline of the philosophical approaches to the meaning of life that I have in mind.
Chapter One discusses the definition, history, and category of antinatalism. Antinatalism is the thought that all human beings or all sentient beings should not be born. Although I am not an antinatalist, I believe that antinatalism poses an important question about procreation and the meaning of our lives. This is why I presented an overview of antinatalistic thoughts in the past and the present and also performed an analytical examination of their arguments.
In Chapter Two, I take up Philosopher Thaddeus Metz’s argument on meaning in life, especially his fundamentality theory, and claim that “the heart of meaning in life,” which is the concept I propose in this chapter, cannot be compared with anything whatsoever.
Chapter Three deals with the concept of “birth affirmation,” which means that I can say “yes” to my having been born. I believe that birth affirmation is one of the most promising ideas that can contribute to contemporary philosophical discussions on meaning in life, and I call this approach “an affirmation-based approach to meaning in life.” The concept of birth affirmation has two dimensions: the psychological dimension and the philosophical dimension. I would like to show in this chapter that it is difficult to clarify what it actually means to say “yes” to my having been born.
Chapter Four discusses the relationship between the dropping of the atomic bombs and the trolley problem. I argue that the dropping of atomic bombs was a typical example of the events that contained the logic of the trolley problem in both their decision-making processes and justifications. I further argue that the trolley problem has its own unique problems, which I call “the problem of the trolley problem.” This problem has been overlooked in academic discussions of the trolley problem. I also refer to a religious aspect of this problem.
In Chapter Five, I talk about the “philosophy of life” as an academic discipline. We have the philosophy of language, the philosophy of religion, and the philosophy of history, but why don’t we have the philosophy of life in the field of philosophy? Of course, we have Lebensphilosophie, but it does not cover philosophical discourses in ancient worlds, nor current analytical approaches to the concepts of life and death. A new research field is required to advance contemporary philosophy.
In Chapter Six, I illustrate an outline of my “painless civilization” theory, a criticism of contemporary civilization that deprives us of a joy of life in exchange for eliminating pain and suffering. I also discuss the concept of “fundamental sense of security,” which is considered indispensable for us to be able to live a life without regret.

Nihilism poses grave problems for those who seek directives to lead their lives. In this article, the three most important ways to deal with nihilism are inquired, with an emphasis on their credibility. Both nihilism from a metaphysical perspective and the emphasis on pleasure from nihilistic considerations are given attention. The acceptance of nihilism can have far-reaching consequences, which are evaluated at various points. Nietzsche’s approach must also be considered. He accepts what he calls a sort of nihilism, but as a means to ‘new’ values. This alternative to nihilism is examined no less critically than the other two stances.

The enactive approach to cognition is developed in the context of music and music education. I discuss how this embodied point of view affords a relational and bio-cultural perspective on music that decentres the Western focus on language, symbol and representation as the foundations of cognition and meaning. I then explore how this 'life-based' approach to cognition and meaning-making offers a welcome alternative to standard Western academic approaches to music education. More specifically, I consider how the enactive perspective may aid in developing deeper ecological understandings of the transformative, extended and interpenetrative nature of the embodied musical mind; and thus help (re)connect students and teachers to the lived experience of their own learning and teaching. Following this, I examine related concepts associated with Buddhist psychology in order to develop possibilities for a contemplative music pedagogy. To conclude, I consider how an enactive-contemplative perspective may help students and teachers awaken to the possibilities of music education as ontological education. That is, through a deeper understanding of ‘music as a manifestation of life’ rediscover their primordial nature as autopoietic and world-making creatures and thus engage more deeply with musicality as a means of forming richer and more compassionate relationships with their peers, their communities and the ‘natural’ and cultural worlds they inhabit.

In this chapter, I propose taking a historical step back in order to reconsider neglected possibilities for contemporary thinking “after Heidegger.” It is no doubt appropriate to interpret Martin Heidegger’s early lecture courses and lectures from 1919 to 1925 in light of his relation to life-philosophy (Lebensphilosophie) and as unfolding a “philosophy of life.” As the works of Theodore Kisiel, John van Buren, and Scott M. Campbell have shown, Heidegger appropriated life-philosophical tendencies during this crucial early phase of his thought in ways that remain pertinent to his later philosophy and our own contemporary hermeneutical situation...

Darwinism has become an encompassing theory, leaving the confines of science and accounting for all aspects of life. Such an outlook entails important consequences for the evaluation of life. In particular, organisms are considered mere means for species’ preservation and development, while reason is no special faculty, but rather an outgrowth of functions that are rudimentarily present in animals. Darwinism cannot, for that reason, be said to be ‘true’, but if Darwinism is the correct view, the implications for man are grave, no purpose or meaning of life being discernible. Darwinists are accordingly faced with the question why they continue their inquiries.

This book is a collection of all the papers and the essay published in the special issue “Philosophy and Meaning in Life Vol.3,” Journal of Philosophy of Life, Vol.11, No.1, 2021, pp.1-154.
We held the Third International Conference on Philosophy and Meaning in Life online at the University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK, on July 21–23, 2020. This conference was co-hosted by the Birmingham Centre for Philosophy of Religion, and the Waseda Institute of Life and Death Studies. We accepted about 50 presentations from around the world. Professor Lisa Bortolotti and I gave keynote lectures.
After the conference, we called for papers for publication from the speakers, and we accepted seven papers and an essay for the special issue of the Journal of Philosophy of Life. We would like to give special thanks to the anonymous referees who kindly reviewed the submitted manuscripts. The accepted papers deal with a variety of topics, such as the subjective/objective debate, narrative meaning, Simone de Beauvoir, and Alain Badiou, and they are all discussed from the perspective of the philosophy of meaning in life.

"This book takes the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and applies it to educational practice. To understand how and why to do this, David R Cole puts forward the notion of educational life-forms in this writing, which are moving concepts based on Deleuzian principles. This book turns on and through the construction of the philosophy of life in education. The life-forms that will come about due to the philosophy of life in education rest on epiphanies, the virtual and affect. The author looks to infuse educational practice with the philosophy of life, though not through simple affirmation or a construction of counter metaphysics to representation in education. This book uses Deleuze for practical purposes and sets out to help teachers and students to think otherwise about the current praxis of education.         



"With this book Educational Life-Forms which is an examination of the significance of the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze for education, David R Cole proves himself to be one of the very small number of philosophers of education who has provided intelligent commentary of Deleuze's difficult corpus. Cole keenly appreciates the conceptual creativity of Deleuze especially in relation to the concepts of 'life forms' and 'body without organs' and effectively demonstrates its practical implications for education." - Michael A. Peters Professor, Educational Policy Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.



“David R Cole's, Educational Life-Forms: Deleuzian Teaching and Learning Practice is a profound, speculative work that offers both new ways of thinking about the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze (as a practical thinker with ideas that can be applied at the 'coal face', as it were) and new ways of thinking about teaching and learning. It engages with actual policy debates as they are played out in the complex reality of the classroom situation and brings to them a fresh perspective developed through a close reading of Deleuze. This is an exciting new work which will be rewarding reading for both Deleuzians and non-Deleuzians and is sure to win converts amongst the latter.” - Ian Buchanan, Editor Deleuze Studies Professor of Critical Studies, Dean of research in the Arts and Social Sciences University of Woolongong.



In this thoughtful and engaging book, David R Cole has given us an answer to the important question of how Deleuze's philosophy enters into the practice of education. Cole situates this philosophy within existing debates around teaching and learning not only through a very lucid account of Deleuze's work and current theory, but also through highly effective and often moving examples of practice. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in Deleuze and education - James Williams Professor of European Philosophy, University of Dundee."

This chapter shows that if there are good reasons to consider Henri Bergson as one of the major figures in the filed of “philosophy of life”, it is still necessary to underline that the concept of life is here inseparable from the one of duration, which has itself ontological and epistemological entailments. I show that Creative Evolution is situated at the heart of this complex problematic, and proposes a theory of life that has strong ties with a critical theory of knowledge, through which Bergson is led to specify how science and metaphysics are different yet complementary.  Once this is made clear, it is possible to grasp what Bergson calls “the true nature” of life. Traced back to duration, the notion of “life” acquires its comprehensive meaning and integrates the different dimensions that ordinary language spontaneously gives to it when speaking about organic, psychic, or even social life.

"Confessions of a Frigid Man: A Philosopher’s Journey into the Hidden Layers of Men’s Sexuality" is the translation of a Japanese 2005 bestseller, "Kanjinai Otoko." Soon after the publication, this book stirred controversy over the nature of male sexuality, male “frigidity,” and its connection to the “Lolita complex.” Today, this work is considered a classic in Japanese men’s studies.

The most striking feature of this book is that it was written from the author’s first-person perspective. The author is a professor who teaches philosophy and ethics at a university in Japan, and in this book he talks about his own sexual fetishism, his feeling of emptiness after ejaculation, and his huge obsession with young girls and their developing female bodies. He undertakes a philosophical investigation of how and why sexuality took such a form within a person who had grown up as a “normal,” heterosexual man.

This may be the first case in which a philosopher delves deep into his own sexuality and poses an ambitious hypothesis about the formation of male “frigid” sexuality, which might actually be shared by many “normal” men in our society in a hidden way. Reading this book, female readers will come to know, for the first time, some hidden aspects of male sexuality which men have skillfully submerged in a deep layer of their psyches.

Table of Contents

Foreword to English Readers
Preface
Chapter 1: As Long as There’s a Miniskirt I Don’t Need a Flesh and Blood Woman!?
Chapter 2: Men Who Avert Their Eyes from “Male Frigidity”
Chapter 3: Why am I Attracted to School Uniforms?
Chapter 4: Delving into the Psychology of Men with “Lolita Complexes”
Chapter 5: Moving Beyond Being a “Frigid Man”
Epilogue: Further Thoughts on a Frigid Man – Year 2013

* You can read a newspaper article on this book entitled "Professor examines Lolita complex by first looking at his own experience" in Japan Times, May 5, 2017.
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From "Preface"

"In this book I am going to write about the idea that men may not feel much sexual pleasure or satisfaction, and that it is because of this lack of feeling that they become absorbed in sexual fantasies involving things like miniskirts, uniforms, “lolicon” [a Japanese term for “Lolita complex”], and rape. In order to support this assertion I will speak extensively about myself. I intend to consider this issue not in terms of a general theory of male sexuality but rather from the point of view of my own specific case.

But I hope male readers read this text as if it were written just for them. I hope female readers read it with a sense of urgency, imagining that the man they are with may be subject to some of the same psychological workings it describes. I have resolved to speak with complete frankness; I intend to explore this unknown world without any fear or reservation. ....."

Die Kategorien, die Wilhelm Dilthey in seiner philosophischen Untersuchungen aufgedeckt hat, bilden den Kern seiner Methode. Jedoch sind sie ein Rätsel: „Wenn wir nun diese Beziehungen als Kategorien abstrakt herausheben, dann liegt in diesem Verfahren selbst, dass die Zahl dieser Kategorien nicht abgrenzbar ist und ihr Verhältnis nicht auf eine logische Form gebracht werden kann“ (VI, 232).